One Extra Life

Lyrics

The screen glows.
GAME OVER.
Just the one button left.
Green and pulsing.
Like a little heart.

My thumb hovers over the glass.
It's warm from my hand, from the processor.
It's 2 AM in 2017.
The plastic case smells faintly of ozone.
My card is on file.
My name is on file.
A one-click setting I enabled months ago
and forgot.
Until now.

One extra life.
For ninety-nine cents.
A bit is flipped in a server farm in Ashburn.
A boolean changes from true to false.
The button disappears.
The charge goes through.
And I get one more try.
Just one.

The candy shatters. The jewels align.
For thirty seconds, I'm winning.
The colors are so bright.
The little sounds are so affirming.
Then I hit the same wall.
The same impossible level.
And the screen goes dark again.
GAME OVER.

One extra life.
For ninety-nine cents.
A bit is flipped in a server farm in Ashburn.
A boolean changes from true to false.
The button disappears.
The charge goes through.
And I get one more try.
Just one.

Someone wrote the code for this.
`function spend_life()`.
Someone, somewhere, logged the exact millisecond I pressed the screen.
They logged the device ID.
They logged my battery percentage.
Seventeen percent.
Did you know that?
The person who wrote the line.
Did you know I was almost dead?

The green button is back.
Pulsing.
Just like a heart.
A heart that wants my money.
A heart that only beats once.